Kill Rommel! (1969)

Director: Alfonso Brescia

Starring: Anton Diffring, Carl Parker and a crapload of Italians

More Info: IMDB

Plot: During WWII, US Lieutenant Morris and British captain Hull are assigned in a mission to kill Rommel.

My Rating: 6.5

Would I watch it again? I could see that happening if I've exhausted all other Italian WWII films

Outside of the US (if not more so), Italy is my favorite country for film output. They exploited everything in the 60s and 70s. Eurowar is a great example. It wasn't until THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), easily one of the greatest WWII films of...all...time, came out and became an international success that the Italians dove into the WWII action genre head first. I have no idea how many were made but the genre lasted only a few years into the early 70s but they raped and pillaged those years until there wasn't much left.


This is the third night in a row that I've watched an Italian WWII actioner and KILL ROMMEL! is the least of the three. That's not saying it isn't good. It is for the most part. It's the acting (could be the dubbing, too, but there are scenes where, dubbing or not, he's pretty bad) by the lead, Carl Parker as the sole American - Lt. George Morris. He's pretty lousy and it brings down most scenes where he's doing some 'acting'. It's no shock to see by his credits on IMDB that this is his first of 4 films he's acted in. Outside of that, it's quite a good picture.


The story's about Morris joining a British "Rat Patrol-esqe" force in Africa during WWII. There's just a handful of them and Morris, a Texan (we're told), wants to do things his own way and has a complete distaste for his British commanding officer, Captain Richard Hull (very nicely played by Anton Diffring). That's all fine and dandy if Morris weren't such a fucking baby about everything. He bitches about shit almost as much as Anakin Skywalker in ATTACK OF THE CLONES. His inability to obey orders gets him and his comrades into some shitty situations.


After the first quarter of the film Morris court martialed for disobeying orders. The Lt. gets him off the hook so he can join his team on a plan to kill Rommel. Intelligence (bad intelligence...bad) has it that Rommel will be arriving at a small air field. The boys tear through the town, killing everyone in sight, hauling ass to the air field on the outskirts. Killing Germans left and right they end up in pursuit of the general, eventually killing all passengers including the decoy. WTF? He's a decoy? It's not the real Rommel? That's right. Shit. Now they're doing their best to get the fuck out of Dodge 'cause the Jerrys are hot on their tail. What follows is a series of action sequences that end up killing off some of the men leaving Morris and Howell left along with an Italian prisoner they picked up along the way. Will they make it back to HQ across the unflinching desert?




It's really got a lot of action and some terrific location shooting. I love this shit. Lots of great WWII desert fights with the usual machine guns, tanks, planes and so on. Really fun stuff. But goddamnit! Parker is bad. His character doesn't really have much of an arc, either, although they try. He's just at a point where he's doing what he can to survive. That'll change anyone in some way. I will say that his acting improves 'slightly' in the second half of the film since he's not complaining much and in the final minutes of the movie he's got that Harrison Ford look going for him.


In all, it's definitely worth a look. The copy I watched was a TV rip from where I don't know but it's letterboxed and a good print. I'd hate to think of how shitty this would be in a full screen, pan & scan version. The wide shots of the terrain in KILL ROMMEL! are fantastic. Don't cry yourself to sleep if you can't find it. It'll turn up somewhere and when it does, you'll have fun.